In the first large foodbourne outbreak of the year (to my knowledge anyway), seventy-six cases of food poisoning so far have been linked to the consumption of durian pastries from Goodwood Park Hotel according to various mainstream news reports today, resulting in the suspension of the hotel bakery’s food establishment license by the National Environment Agency. The first alert dates to 15th March, which indicates fairly early recognition and rapid investigation.

 

The aetiological agent was not mentioned, but such outbreaks are commonly caused by noroviruses or non-typhoidal Salmonella species in Singapore. The blogger at Singapore’s most-read microbiology blog believes it is more likely to be salmonellosis, a view which is also supported by the fact that food handlers had to go for stool screening.
This foodbourne outbreak is only slightly smaller in scale than the GBS outbreak last year (largely because this unusual outbreak went undetected for more than half a year) and the Salmonella enteritides food poisoning outbreak associated with Prima Deli products all the way back in 2007.